The RCAHMS record linked to below suggests that local people once knew the site as “The Covenanters Preaching Stones” (exact punctuation up to you I think) – the Covenanters, for historically ignorant sassenachs like myself, being 17th century Scottish Presbyterians.
But I wonder whether the stone(s) here is also the one in the following story:
One [tradition still floating about in the district] relates how, on one occasion, a brawny Highlander had occasion to pass the house [of Frendraught]. He was observed by the lady, who remarked to her husband that he was the prettiest man she had ever seen. This remark led to a quarrel, and her husband, filled with jealous anger, is said to have rushed from the house and followed the unsuspecting Highlander, whom he slew, and buried under a large stone near the hill top.
It seems likely, does it not. ??
From ‘Some stone circles in central Aberdeenshire’ by James Ritchie, PSAS 1917, volume 51, p30-47.